Beware Veterans, Disabled Veterans, and anyone who relies on a medical Service Dog: The way I have…read morebeen mistreated by the City of Asheville and its public infrastructure is beyond words. I am a permanently disabled Veteran and a 34-year Veteran Advocate whose work has been featured in the Huffington Post and Stars and Stripes (a simple search for "Lisa Groves Veterans" will show my life's dedication). Yet, Asheville has treated me with utter cruelty and zero empathy.
I flew in on Delta from Atlanta on June 15th with my two service dogs (one I've had for 7 years, and one in training, after recently losing my dedicated dog Koko of 10 years). Both dogs were fully cleared by the TSA. Because I am in a mobility wheelchair with a complete loss of my lower extremities, I cannot drive and rely entirely on accessible transit. Before arriving, I reached out to Loyalty Transportation via emails and voicemails to arrange rides to this day, they have completely ignored me.
But my experience with Asheville Rides Transit (ART) has been a living nightmare that has now left me broke and facing homelessness.
An ART supervisor left me hanging at a bus stop, demanding that I put my service dog in a crate and requiring paperwork. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), both of these demands are completely illegal. When I explained that I was having a severe panic attack, the supervisor did not care. My 7-year PTSD Service Dog did exactly what he is medically trained to do: he barked to alert and signal that I was in medical distress, continuing to bark until I received assistance. The ART supervisor used his life-saving medical alert behavior to penalize him, claiming he "isn't a real service dog." I would love to know what federal training this local transit supervisor has to override the TSA and the federal government.
When I tried to tell her that I regularly access MARTA buses, trains, and Paratransit in Atlanta with this exact mobility wheelchair and service dog profile, she completely snubbed and ignored me. To make matters worse, ART employees complained about my three bags. I am paralyzed; I carry life-essential medical equipment when I travel. I cannot "travel light," especially when a city's infrastructure leaves me stranded.
What makes this discrimination so blatant is that my dogs and I had already ridden four ART buses for over an hour and waited at the Transit Center twice before this with absolutely no issues. Suddenly, I was targeted, wrongly judged, and punished.
Because of ART's refusal to provide legal accommodation, I have been forced to burn through my limited disability money just to pay for a hotel room. Tomorrow, I will be completely out of funds and facing homelessness in the grass of a city in a country I honorably served, all because I cannot get transportation back to Georgia.
What this supervisor and bus driver do not know is that two separate federal government entities overheard their entire unprofessional, illegal exchange. I was on the phone with a VA Nurse who was calling to give me medical results, as well as a US Department of Transportation (DOT) Supervisor. The DOT Supervisor heard everything, confirmed the violations, and explicitly instructed me to file a formal complaint against them. Additionally he will add to my complaint what he overheard unprofessionally saying.
I will absolutely be filing an official ADA complaint with the Federal Transit Administration, the US Department of Transportation, and the Department of Justice. Furthermore, I will be filing a lawsuit soon against the City of Asheville and ART.
To Mayor Esther Manheimer and the leadership of Asheville Rides Transit / RATP Dev Management: Your total lack of professionalism, empathy, and basic adherence to federal ADA laws is disgusting. You have discriminated against and stranded a disabled veteran.